Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

I am frugal and I *LOVE* a good bargain! Yesterday I went to a local children's resale shop (not Goodwill) to find a dress for Dori for Easter. Not only did I get what looks like a brand new dress, I got several things for my son. My grand total $15.68!! I had a 10% off coupon + $10.50 in store credit from consignment.

Monday, March 29, 2010

I was in charge of putting together an auction basket for my son's HS band auction. I decided to do an Operation Gratitude basket with the donations I received. I got all kinds of goodies from their Wish List and filled up a box. At the bottom of the list was Cool-Ties with a link to instructions on how to make them. I found out that they cost $4 to buy at a local store, so I decided to make some instead. I was able purchase a bottle of Schultz Moisture Plus Watering Crystals for just under $8. I made 32 ties and only used about 1/3 of the bottle. I used quilt scraps I had on hand to cut the 4" strips, following the directions on this site. I quickly serged the edges and then sewed the remaining parts in a chain-link style, pushing each tie through the machine without stopping to cut in between. I was about to make all the ties in about 3 hours.Here is my daughter modeling the test tie. It's amazing how less than a teaspoon of the crystals fatten up with the water and stay wet and cool for days!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

How do you feel about the job application process? It just freaks me out. I recently applied for a job and I was nearly hyperventilating as I updated my resume and wrote a cover letter. I am well qualified for the position, but I still had adrenaline pumping through my veins. I don't even have my heart set on the position. I know that doesn't sound right. What I mean is...I am OK if I get the position and I am OK if I don't get the position. I just want to make sure a strong candidate gets the position. If that is someone else, fine! On the positive side, it is the ideal part time job to me. Normally when I go through the job application process that little inner voice reminds me that I am not worthy. That isn't even present this time, but I still got all stressed out and worked up. I'd be OK to just work for myself or from home the rest of my life...but that isn't realistic. So what's my hang-up? (OK...you don't have to answer that one! LOL!) How do you feel about applying for a job? Do you experience similar?

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Today we met some friends at a nearby Easter Egg Hunt. These are friends we try to play with once a week or so. The egg hunt was held at a local mega-church. Free hot dog & drinks for the kiddos, blow-up games, carnival games, prize walk, etc. There was even a scary looking bunny and a chicken walking around. My daughter wants NOTHING to do with dressed up characters. I don't force her at all...I feel for her! Each kid got lots of promo materials from the church. I expected as much...even though I had no idea that it was such a huge carnival.

Then we were told to line up for the Easter Egg hunt. We had to line up at the church doors. OK...maybe they are having us go inside while they hide the eggs. NOPE! They were ushering us in to brainwash preach to us. OK...this is held at a church...so I thought this will be OK. They are just going to thank us for coming, rile up the kids, and then send us out the backdoor to get eggs! NOPE!! We got tricked treated to a mini church service. Hum...

First off the music was WAY too loud. I am not talking I've become my dad and complain about loud music in restaurants old loud...it was kids cover your ears cause you will damage your hearing loud. Second off...they had a kid around 20 give his testimonial. OK...that was very brave of him...but who thought it would be good to have someone talk about their addiction/problems with drugs to kids 10 and under? I really hope it was over the kids heads because it was some troubling stuff. Maybe OK for middle or high schoolers, but they weren't included in the carnival! Third...teens did an musical interpretation of Jesus dying on the cross. Once again, nice presentation but NOT appropriate for young children. And finally, there were bouncers blocking the doors...no way could you go wait in the lobby. If you wanted to go hunt for eggs...you HAD to stay in the sanctuary. My friend lucked out and was able to go out as her (newly potty trained) son had to go the bathroom and she got back just in time to go out for eggs!

Don't get me wrong...it wasn't that I was uncomfortable with church. I am a Christian and I go to church. I am actively involved in my church. I teach Sunday School and put in many volunteer hours each month. I believe that people should have a choice and not have things forced on them. Yes, we had the choice to leave the presentation, but then my daughter would not have been able to hunt for eggs...which she was very excited about. So we stayed. She seems no worse for the wear, and I survived. She has a basket full of candy and got to go on the blow up slide. I just won't go to that church again. Oh wait...that's our polling place. So I will visit...just on voting day!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Last night the kiddos & I were pulling up to Walgreens to pick up some ice cream and a local news station was out front. My son told the guy he wanted to be on TV and he asked if we used the Redbox. I told him that we did and he asked if we could be featured on his news story. OK! I had a headache and went to bed early, but we set the DVR. The kiddos stayed up to see themselves on TV and they came into my bedroom all excited after they saw themselves! Cool!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

There was no Survivor, but remember that it's on Wednesday instead of Thursday this week!

Amazing Race~ It seems as if this shorter leg came at a good time for the teams. Many seemed tired out and made mistakes. Driving to the wrong town (twice for the Cowboys) didn't really hurt anyone because the start and pit stop were so close to each other.

Skill vs. Luck~ The bros said they will always choose skill over luck and they did a great job stacking the glasses and pouring. I can't imagine trying to hold that HUGE bottle and pour it slowly.

It was pretty obvious that Jeff & Jordan were going to be out. I didn't watch Big Bro at all, but they seem well suited for each other. Brent & Caite on the other hand do not belong together!!

Next week they go to the Seychelles Islands, which is a very beautiful place!!

Undercover Boss~ I enjoyed this episode! I think the boss really learned a lot about this company. That one CS rep should have been FIRED on the spot but he didn't want to blow his cover. And then when he met with her, he was TOO polite. It does not surprise me that she is no longer with the company at the time it aired. I've skipped a few episodes that did not seem like they would be interesting to me, but this GSI one was good!

Celebrity Apprentice~ I didn't get to see it on Sunday night because AR was delayed due to basketball, which means CA was already have way over when AR ended. I went to online to watch it at NBC.com and I saw the results! UGH! From now on I am going to watch shows through Hulu, because you can click on watch latest episode without seeing any spoilers. So even though I knew that Sinbad got fired (meaning the guys lost) I still go sucked into watching. I didn't realize it was another 2 hour episode, so I was up late last night. I am surprised that the guys did as well as they did on the challenge. I thought Sinbad did a very poor job of leading. That was so gross that Sharon Osborne was coughing over those YUMMY looking cupcakes. Cindi Lauper is soooo out there. I think they should pair her up with Bret Michaels on a task. LOL!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

I've been doing a lot of bloggy work, but it's been a pretty laid back weekend. I even forgot to post yesterday. Oops! I guess I didn't meet my goal of blogging each day in March. Oh well...at least I am in the habit if posting most days. (...and probably putting most of you to sleep!)

Yesterday my teen returned from the HS marching band's trip to Disney World. It was QUITE chilly when they got off the bus, but the kids were soooo excited that they didn't seem to notice. Now nearly 24 hours later and teen is still in a good mood. It is now spring break, so maybe the happy will remain!The kiddos have friends over right now so they are occupied. DH is catching a nap~Hope you've had a relaxing weekend too!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Spring Break is upon us and we have no plans. It's GORGEOUS out today so I am going to take the kiddos to the park. Teen is still at Disney World with the HS marching band. They come home tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be wet and cool this weekend and next, so we will probably do a lot of outside stuff in between. Otherwise we have nothing planned. Not very exciting for the kids, but they will be happy to be off school. I am thinking that afternoon naps are a good plan!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Or shall I say sugar? As I've talked about a little this year, I've started drinking coffee. At times it's irritated my stomach, so I've tried out tea too. I am not having caffeine every day, just when I feel like I need it. Well, the time change has really had me hankering for some caffeine. I went without on Tuesday, but I had a headache yesterday so I had a coke. It was one of those 'caffeine is the only think that will take care of this' headaches. I sipped on my soda for over an hour, but the headache went away right away. Then all afternoon I had the caffeine shakes. The only way I seem to be able to balance that out is with food. Which of course means I overeat! Bad cycle!!

Something else I have noticed is that the days I have caffeine that I feel like crashing in the afternoon. If I don't have caffeine then I am tired in the morning but alert in the afternoon. What's up? SUGAR! I don't like the taste of coffee by itself, so I put chocolate in to make a mocha. The caffeine WAKES me up in the morning, but the sugar makes me crash in the afternoon. I don't need to overeat and I certainly don't need the extra sugar. So what am I supposed to do?

Probably get a little more sleep and just drink water!! I am sure more exercise would help too!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Survivor~ This episode was BORING compared the first 4. I think it's just becoming predictable. Heroes will lose again next week and Colby will go home. Amanda is so ditzy...Oh James...you are back!!! I don't think James is going to be able to hang around too much longer. Rupert is dumb for aligning with Amanda & James. And stupid for saying he doesn't care about the (chocolate) reward cause he just wants to win the challenge. Isn't the challenge FOR chocolate? And then in the challenge Rupert smashes Jerri's face into a pole. I don't think he meant to hurt her, but it was a VERY lame apology. I think Jerri didn't show how much it hurt...and covered the whole thing up by scoring the winning basket.Yes...all that chocolate looked good...but can you imagine the digestive issues they must have had. I would have concentrated on the choc covered nuts for the protein. That huge hole where they went swimming was incredible! Russell & Pavarti were so stupid to hang back. Everyone knows what they are up to and that Russell has the idol. And stupid Coach bowing down to Russell? Like Russell's ego needs any more stroking? Are we going to have some strange 3 way bromance now with Coach sweet on Rob & bowing down to Russell?

Anyway, no new Survivor until Wednesday, March 24th cause it's March Madness!

Amazing Race~ I really thought that Jordan & Jeff were goners, until that U-turn. From the get go everyone chose to do the crawling challenge. The morse code one was just too hard. Maybe they designed the choices like that so that everyone would choose the crawl and then only the U-turned team would have to do the morse code...and it changed the course of the game. I think the detectives were right to U-turn Joe & Heidi. Joe had been a real pompous ass and did need to be brought down a few notches. Production had to like them doing it. I mean U-turning the last place team that already had a (lame) Speed Bump would be too obvious and boring!

Once again Caite & Brent proved just how dumb they are. They don't pay attention to their surrounding, but they continue to claw their way through. She made another brilliant quote~ ''We're doing everything great. We like to think that we know where we're going when we really don't so we need to stop being so hard at it.'' I am not even going to try to interpret that!Is it me or is there a tat bit of awkwardness to Steve & Allie's relationship? They don't come across as dad-daughter...but more like creepy older guy that is together with someone WAY too young for him. Maybe they didn't spend a lot of time together when Allie was growing up, but there is just something a little off about their relationship.

The cowboys looked very strong this leg! I think our 3 final teams will be the top 3 from this episode.

Celebrity Apprentice~ I have never been a huge fan of the apprentice. I thought the idea of a celebrity one was interesting, but that Pearce dude was such an ass that I was turned off from watching it. But the previews for this new season had me intrigued. I am not a fan of any of the contestants...but my interest was sort of peaked. At 8pm on Sunday I saw that there was a choice of Undercover Boss, Desperate Housewives, and Celebrity Apprentice. UB doing Churchill Downs...BORING...DH really isn't appropriate with kids around, but by golly....CA is VERY appropriate. NOT! Kids weren't paying attention at all. DH was standing there as it was introduced and I asked if he was going to watch. He said no...but after a few minutes standing there...he said he was in for the season. I think it was Sharon Osbourne's comments.

I thought that Cyndi Lauper was going to be so much stronger. I actually thought the woman had a chance when the guys picked her and the girls picked Bret Michaels. Then they learned it was a restaurant task~ advantage men with Curtis Stone. But then he overprices everything and the woman have lots of customers and Blago is playing politician rather than wait tables. Back and forth, back and forth....

Blago & Cyndi....LAME! Woman lost the task big time and then they were pussy-footing their way around the board room. Who should I fire?Oh, uhm... I don't know....uhm! Who should I fire? Just go ahead and SAY WHAT YOU ARE THINKING?! You are on a (stupid) TV show...you are in Trump's board room...your career is washed up...GIVE HIM A NAME!!!! Cyndi Lauper was a horrible PM and he should have had her fat @$$ out of there. She was more worried about how fat she looked in the photos than doing what it takes to win the task. I can't believe that Cyndi got away with referring to the Rosie incident AND dissing Trumps wife on camera. Trump didn't fire her cause she's just too good for ratings.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

My teen just completed the 30 Hour Famine along with 12 others from our church this weekend. They went without any food for 30 hours to help raise awareness and money for hunger crisis around the world. The group decided to designate their funds to go to Haiti. Here is some information from the 30 Hour Famine website.

What is the 30 Hour Famine?

World Vision's 30 Hour Famine is a worldwide movement of students who are serious about serving God and fighting hunger - all on an empty stomach. For 30 hours, participants get a taste of hunger by not eating - something more than a billion people around the world experience every day. And by doing fundraising activities, community service projects, and learning more about the facts on hunger, students are changed in amazing ways as they help others and save lives.

You can read more about 30 Hour Famine at their website. If you'd like to sponsor my son, you can make an online donation directly to World Vision. Please contact me for his direct donation page so he gets credit. This was my son's 7th year participating in the famine. I am very proud of him and the others who completed it!!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Friday, March 12, 2010

I recently got my eye brows threaded. Have you heard of it? Here is a news clip about it.

It did hurt, but the pain was gone right away. Just think of several hairs being plucked at once. They do threading here at a kiosk in the mall...so people walk by and watch. LOL! While it was happening I didn't care. My skin was a little pink afterward, but not painful, red, and swollen as with waxing. It was quick and I think my eyebrows look really good!I will definitely go back and have them done again! I am sure I'll wince, but I wince when I pluck...so I prefer someone else do it. It was $10. BTW~ They do anchor the thread in their teeth, but the thread does not change position so that part of the thread does not come near your face at all!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

My online friends, Jim & Cora, are in the process of adopting 2 children. They are holding a few fundraisers to help bring their children home. Cora makes custom clothing and blankets at her Little Miss's Blankets & Stuff website. Jim is a fabulous artist and together they came up with the idea of selling coloring books of his drawings. The coloring books have been very popular and they've had to make extra copies already. For a suggested donation of $5 + $2 for S/H, you too could have hours of coloring fun!! We ordered our Under the Sea coloring book and my daughter was SO excited when it arrived. She immediately grabbed her crayons and started coloring. Here are a few of her creations~Here is another one that Dori & her daddy did together. Even adults can have fun coloring!Cora & Jim recently released the Transportation Color Me Home Book and it's a huge hit.

Here is one of the pages colored by a teen friend of ours~

I believe that Jim might be working on an Animals or Dinosaur book now. At $5 these books make a wonderful gift. Order several and have them on hand for the next birthday party that your child gets invited to. Guaranteed to be a one of a kind gift!!

How would you like to win a Color Me Home book? I've already made an extra donation so that I can give one of these great coloring books out here at Diana Rambles. One of my lucky readers will get their choice of the Under the Sea Color Me Home Book or the Transportation Color Me Home book. This giveaway will go through 11:59 CST on Wednesday, March 17th. USA only!! The winner will be announced and notified on March 18th and will have 48 hours to contact me. Comments are hidden as you need to fill out the form below to enter!

To enter this giveaway~

Visit Color Me Home and pick which Color Me Home Book you'd like to win. You'll need to tell me why you want to win this book. This step is required and must be done to get any of the additional entries to qualify!

You can earn 1 extra entry for posting the Color Me Home button on the sidebar of your blog. The copy & paste code is provided on the sidebar at Color Me Home. Please fill out the form an additional time and include a link to your blog.

You can earn 1 extra entry for being a follower of the Color Me Home blog. Please fill out the form 1 additional time for this.

You can earn 2 extra entries by creating a new blog post on your blog about this giveaway. It should have a link to this giveaway here at Diana Rambles and a link to Color Me Home. Please fill out the form 2 additional times with a link to your blog post.

You can earn 1 extra entry by twittering about this giveaway. Please fill out the form an additional time and include a link to your tweet.

You can earn 1 extra entry by becoming a fan of Color Me Home on Facebook. Please fill out the form an additional time for this.

You can earn 1 extra entry by posting about this giveaway on Facebook. I understand that I might not be able to see this status update, but I will trust that you do this! Please fill out the form an additional time and include your FB info.

So that is a possibility of 8 entries. I will be verifying all entries and removing any that don't follow the rules. Please make sure you do the required first entry! **MAKE sure you fill out the form for each entry! This is how I keep track of your entries!!**Giveaway Closed!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

I set a goal for myself to post each day this month. So far, so good. I even have some posts in draft form ready for future days. I have some giveaways in the planning stage and home to post one soon.

I just won a great blog giveaway for tickets to Nickelodeon's StoryTime Live. My daughter is SOOO excited about it. We even get to go early to meet the cast. She's usually leary of big dressed up characters, but all these have their (human) face showing so maybe she will be OK. Dora & Kai-Lan don't have big costumes...so we should at least be able to get pics with them. A local friend of mine told me about the giveaway, so I am taking her & her son along with us. I'll post pics soon. My daughter plans on dressing up.

This early spring weather is WONDERFUL! I have a feeling it's going to stay and winter is behind us. I know it's only been in the 40s, but it seems SOOO much warmer. Our poor doggie is SOO hot with his long coat, so I am taking him to the groomers tomorrow.

We are leaving on our big trip to Alaska in just over 3 months, so we really need to get the planning in gear. I've ordered the 2010 Milepost, which is a mile by mile break down the highways to, from, and in Alaska. It is super thick and I wonder how we are going to fit it all in 5 weeks. The drive is SOOO long, that we are going to have a little less than 3 weeks in Alaska. Should be a good time though!Do you have any trips in the works?

Monday, March 8, 2010

I wrote up my thoughts on Survivor right after it aired,so I am posting my wrap much earlier this week!

Survivor~ Cry me a river, COACH!! Call a Wah-mulance. Thank you Boston Rob for telling him to now worry and to "pick your head up and be a man!" And Coach bought it hook, line, & sinker cause he has a total man crush on Rob. We did see a little more of Rob this time.Villains definitely were stronger this episode. They seemed to get along. Both teams performed well in the immunity challenge and the villains win was only a matter of inches. Either team could have won that one.

Cirie's boot was such a SHOCK to me. Not only was she blindsided, we were all blindsided. I missed what she said at the end because I was looking at who everyone voted for. JT's vote was the difference. I think the rest of the group decided to split their votes between Tom & Colby. Then if Tom played the immunity idol the next with the most votes was Colby. But JT messed that up by voting for Cirie.

This was the first episode we watched as it aired. We've had conflicts the past 3 weeks and had to watch it on the DVR. It seemed so short watching it real time.

The Office~ Really enjoyed this episode even though the 2nd half sort of dragged out. Dwight is too funny!! Do you think that he & Angela will have a baby?Amazing Race~ Our DVR didn't pick it up, so I watched it online this morning. Did they get a new editing group to do this episode. It was very choppy again and parts were missing. The cowboys are slipping. I don't think they made any major mistakes (other than taking the metro to the next clue), but they just showed that they are not city slickers. I was surprised to see the one has red hair. I never thought we'd see the hats come off...certainly not on the bungee jump! I am very bad at keeping the names straight on teams that are the same gender.

I was very surprised to see the detectives do so well. They've been like bumbling idiots to this point, but they were very strong this episode. Makes me think they might not be bottom feeders afterall. It is a weak cast, so maybe they will be final 3. I still think the cowboys are the strongest team.

I figured it was going to be a non-elim when I saw the 2 young couples bringing up the rear. I can't imagine the producers want them going home early. Is Caite a hypochondriac or is she tough? She sure seems to persevere and really carries that team. Although Brett or whatever his name is did step up to the plate with the boot of beer. Can you imagine having to drink that? I am in agreement with the groups that said it was nasty! I don't think I could drink any beer. I'd take a vat of sauerkraut any day! Allie & Steve still seem to be the ghost team...though we saw a little more of them this time. Next week's episode looks more interesting!The Marriage Ref~ This show really cracks me up! I expected Tina Fey to say more. These couples are so interesting! The best part of the show was Marv Albert calling the basketball game of the guy that won't wear his wedding ring story. Too funny!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Yesterday I took Dori to Read Across America. It was VERY crowded, but she had a good time. She was very excited that her teacher was handing out bags as we walked in. Have you ever gone to a Read Across America event?

Friday, March 5, 2010

I just got in from spending about 90 mins outside with the kiddos. It's only 44 out, but it feels more like 60! Perfectly sunny and NO breeze. Kids didn't even have a coat on. I had a light jacket and was laying on the chaise lounge with a light blanket. One of the neighbors laughed when he drove by, but I don't care!!! I am SOOOO loving this warm up and forecast!